Eminem’s fifth studio album, 2004’s Encore, is easily the worst record he’s ever recorded.
As a follow-up to the excellent The Eminem Show, release just two years earlier, this record couldn’t have been more disappointing.
And ‘Spend Some Time,’ today’s Random Weekend SOTD, might be the worst song on the album. Along with Obie Trice, Stat Quo and 50 Cent, Eminem spews tired, misogynist garbage about the women (make that “bitches”) who’ve let them down.
My week of 1980 albums by groups I’ve never heard turned out to be a theme week on punk rock. Fortunately, the last band featured seems to be the best of the bunch, though that isn’t saying much.
X is a Los Angeles punk band that formed in the late 70s and released their debut album, fittingly titled Los Angeles, in 1980. They recorded regularly throughout the 80s before splitting late in the decade. They reunited a couple of times after that, releasing one more studio album in 1993.
Continuing my tour of critically-acclaimed albums of 1980, I arrive at yet another punk rock band, though this one hails from America. Dead Kennedys released four full-length albums between 1980 and 1986 before disbanding. They reformed in 2001 minus lead singer Jello Biafra, but only to tour.
Biafra has repeatedly accused his bandmates of selling out, for everything from releasing a greatest hits album to licensing their music to a Levis commercial and a Robert Rodriguez movie.
Like Bauhaus, yesterday’s featured artist, Siouxsie and the Banshees were an English “post-punk” band. That doesn’t bode well for my enjoyment of their music.
Kaleidoscope, released in 1980, was the band’s third album and their most successful. They released eight more studio albums over the next 15 years and have continued to tour. It’s nice to see some of these bands still making a go of it 35 years later.
Bauhaus is another band I’ve heard of but never heard. I assumed they were German, but they’re actually English. Described as a cross between punk and goth rock, they released their debut album in 1980, then three more albums over the following three years.
They reunited 25 years later to release an album that will likely be their last, as the group had a major falling out during its recording and agreed to disband.
